From the Archive

July 19, 2012

From the Archive is a regular column that features one image from our archive and appears every Thursday. LUCEO Images has a thorough group archive (keyword search bar, top right) and it can be at the LUCEO Image Archive.

This week we are featuring an archive image taken by Kevin German in Vietnam.

About This Image:

“I have photographed a lot of issues regarding water since moving to Vietnam. Water is of course important in any country. But to a developing country, nearly 80% of illness is linked to poor water and sanitation conditions. Clean water changes everything.

In this photograph, I was visiting a school with an NGO who had recently helped bring clean water to the village. Their village water system is designed to be a model of community sustainability. Residents contribute labor to dig the trenches to lay the pipes, purchase their own house connections for water, and pay for water consumption. Local water managers are selected from each community to collect fees for water usage, and are trained to operate and maintain the systems as well as provide reports to the NGO. This approach greatly increases the long-term success of each water project, as the community has buy-in over the system and its management.

Parents would tell me about how often their children would get sick from the water they got from the river and streams. And even about the preventable diseases their elders died from. Now they are confident that when they turn on the faucet they can fill up a glass and drink.” -Kevin German